"Quantum Bees": Discovered to Solve Complex Problems Faster Than Supercomputers (Today's Most Popular)
In a recent study, researchers reported that bumblebees were able to figure out the most efficient routes among several computer-controlled "flowers," quickly solving a complex problem that even stumps supercomputers. We already know bees are pretty good at facial recognition, and researchers have shown they can also be effective air-quality monitors.
Bumblebees can solve the classic "traveling salesman" problem, which keeps supercomputers busy for days. They learn to fly the shortest possible route between flowers even if they find the flowers in a different order, according to a new British study.
The traveling salesman problem is a problem in computer science; it involves finding the shortest possible route between cities, visiting each city only once. Bees are the first animals to figure this out, according to Queen Mary University of London researchers.
Bees need lots of energy to fly, so they seek the most efficient route among networks of hundreds of flowers using angles of sunlight, which helps them find their way home, researchers say. To do this, their tiny brains must pack a powerful memory.
To test bee problem-solving, researchers Lars Chittka and Mathieu Lihoreau tested bees’ response to computer-controlled artificial flowers. They wanted to see whether the bees would go after the flowers in the order in which they were discovered, or if they would figure out the shortest route among all the flowers even as new ones were added. The bees explored the locations of the flowers and quickly figured out the shortest paths among them, according to a Queen Mary news release.
This is no small feat, especially considering the tiny size of bee brains. When it comes to certain types of intelligence, size apparently does not matter.
Early last year, researchers showed that bees recognize individual faces because they can make out the relative patterns that make up a face. The new research further suggests bees are highly sophisticated problem solvers, and that better understanding of their brains could improve our understanding of network problems like traffic flows, supply chains and epidemiology.
The research was published in the journal The American Naturalist.
Casey Kazan via Queen Mary University of London
The traveling salesman problem is a problem in computer science; it involves finding the shortest possible route between cities, visiting each city only once. Bees are the first animals to figure this out, according to Queen Mary University of London researchers.
Bees need lots of energy to fly, so they seek the most efficient route among networks of hundreds of flowers using angles of sunlight, which helps them find their way home, researchers say. To do this, their tiny brains must pack a powerful memory.
To test bee problem-solving, researchers Lars Chittka and Mathieu Lihoreau tested bees’ response to computer-controlled artificial flowers. They wanted to see whether the bees would go after the flowers in the order in which they were discovered, or if they would figure out the shortest route among all the flowers even as new ones were added. The bees explored the locations of the flowers and quickly figured out the shortest paths among them, according to a Queen Mary news release.
This is no small feat, especially considering the tiny size of bee brains. When it comes to certain types of intelligence, size apparently does not matter.
Early last year, researchers showed that bees recognize individual faces because they can make out the relative patterns that make up a face. The new research further suggests bees are highly sophisticated problem solvers, and that better understanding of their brains could improve our understanding of network problems like traffic flows, supply chains and epidemiology.
The research was published in the journal The American Naturalist.
Casey Kazan via Queen Mary University of London
Comments
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Is a nine month old study really considered recent? Not to me.
Posted by: .Q. | June 15, 2011 at 04:15 AM
Maybe the key to real artificial intelligence lies in quantum computing.
Posted by: UltraBen | June 15, 2011 at 09:53 AM
Maybe the key to real artificial intelligence lies in the bee brain. (I didn't know bees had brains. Does a bee have a brain?)
If this catches on, what about researchers who are also allergic to bee stings?
Maybe there will be a new computer called the "hive", using millions of tiny bees buzzing about inside. The bees could sting and eliminate the other bugs within. Finally ... a bug-free computing environment ... that is, unless you consider the bee to be itself a bug.
Windows will actually become helpful by keeping the bees out of the house. (Is there a joke based on "USB", supports only "American bees"? or what about the mouse?)
Why didn't I think of this? Build a multipurpose computer based on the bee, it can solve the traveling salesman problem ... and provide honey!
Or ... The best computer language is not "C", ... (you can guess what it is)
Or ... The new operating system will be called "Screens", and it will be written in B, the successor of C.
This is good. Having smart bees makes actually enables me to think of jokes.
Posted by: Bob | June 17, 2011 at 10:45 PM
"The bees...quickly figured out the shortest paths...This is no small feat, especially considering the tiny size of bee brains. When it comes to certain types of intelligence, size apparently does not matter."
Don't forget the dark little secret Darwinian Evolutionists like to ignore, the fact they're over a hundred people in the world known to be holding down jobs as University lecturers, tax inspectors, etc., all in the complete absence of a brain.
Add to which all those reports from the Seventeenth, Eighteenth and Nineteenth Century of various great thinkers, etc., of their day having their post mortem craniums cracked open only to reveal the secret of their genius was they didn't actually have brains, (a fact supposedly explained by the claim the early scientists concerned must've tossed the brains away believing them to be something else!).
Posted by: alanborky | June 19, 2011 at 09:39 AM